The bureau of Liberal International stands in solidarity with Russia’s liberal party, Yabloko, and with all Russians who seek an alternative for their country grounded in the values of liberalism.

We are deeply troubled that the result, which is said to have seen Mr. Putin win close to a 90% share of the vote, will legitimise the conceit that leads to a mobilization of thousands more Russians to fight President Putin’s illegal wars abroad while sanctioning greater crackdowns at home, all the time fostering deeper confrontation with the liberal-democratic West.

We note that according to the independent Russian election monitoring movement, Golos, this presidential campaign contained more constitutional violations than any it has observed since its founding more than two decades ago. Throughout the election process, Russia’s entire state apparatus was involved in propaganda, coercion, and voter surveillance. On the last day of voting, law enforcement in some regions exerted control over voters’ will, punishing them for making “incorrect” marking on their ballots or showing up at the polling station to vote at the “wrong” time, and even demanding they reveal their vote. We are also appalled by the forcing of people in the occupied territories of Ukraine to vote.

We applaud the courage of Russians who, in these extremely difficult circumstances, followed the advice of Alexei Navalny to silently protest at numerous polling stations on 17 March, registering their dissent at Vladimir Putin’s deadly authoritarianism and reminding their country that another Russia is possible.

Source:https://liberal-international.org/news-articles/sham-election-russia/

The bureau of Liberal International is shocked to learn that Alexei Navalny, another dissident of the regime of Vladimir Putin, has died at a penal colony outside of the Arctic Circle.

Facing 30 years of a politically-motivated prison sentence, Navalny was one of the most persistent critics of Vladimir Putin. His unwavering fight for transparency, democracy, human rights, and fight against state corruption earned him respect from the global community. Such was the influence of Mr. Navalny that he was able to shake the foundations of Putin’s dictatorial regime even from his prison cell.

We echo the concerns of Liberal International Prize for Freedom laureate, Dr Grigory Yavlinsky, that as an opponent of the regime Navalny ended up in a colony mainly for his political activities. The conditions of his detention are nothing but torture, hypocritically and cruelly committed by the authorities who stop at nothing to suppress their opponents. In the totalitarian Russia that Vladimir Putin has reinforced, we are deeply concerned about the safety of other political prisoners including our 2023 Prize for Freedom laureate, Vladimir Kara-Murza, who also has been the victim of poisoning and whose health is in danger because of the detention conditions. We reiterate our demands for the immediate release of all political prisoners and the end of the persecution of dissidents.

Like so many other liberal-democrats who have fought to be free from an authoritarian Russia, Navalny’s blood is on Putin’s hands.

At this time we offer our deepest condolences to the family, friends, and supporters of Alexei Navalny.

Source:https://liberal-international.org/news-articles/statement-on-the-death-of-navalny/

BY PIERRE EMMANUEL NGENDAKUMANA

DECEMBER 2, 2023 

Moscow security forces carried out raids on gay nightclubs, bars and saunas in the city center on Friday night, according to media reports, a day after Russia’s Supreme Court effectively banned the international LGBTQ+ movement in Russia, labeling it an “extremist” organization.

Police searched venues across the Russian capital, including a nightclub, a male sauna, and a bar that hosted LGBTQ+ parties, under the pretext of a drug raid, local media reported. Eyewitnesses said clubgoers’ documents were checked and photographed by the security services.

Ostorozhno Novosti Telegram news channel reported that, on the pretext of searching for drugs, police raided a club on Malaya Yakimanka where a party for the LGBT community was taking place.

“In the middle of the party, they stopped the music and [the police] started to pass into the halls,” according to the report. ”At the exit, they took passport photos without authorization to do so,” Ostorozhno Novosti wrote, citing an eyewitness.

On Friday, the European Union issued a statement in which it strongly condemned the decision of the Russian Supreme Court to outlaw the international LGBT public movement.

“Amid the decades-long crackdown on rights of LGBTIQ persons unleashed under President Putin, this decision aims at further persecuting the LGBTIQ community in Russia and aims to stifle civil society and those courageously defending human rights,” according to the statement.

Source:https://www.politico.eu/article/police-raid-gay-clubs-in-moscow-after-supreme-court-labeled-lgbtq-movement-extremist/

Human Rights Watch reports on the youngest victims of the Russian aggression in Ukraine:

• Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has devastated schools and kindergartens throughout the country. Since February 2022, over 3,790 educational facilities have been damaged or destroyed.
• Ukrainian children have paid a high price in this war because attacks on education are attacks on their future.
• International donors and aid agencies should support the Ukrainian government to ensure the equitable reconstruction of schools in all regions of Ukraine.

(Kyiv, November 9, 2023) – Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has devastated schools and kindergartens throughout the country, Human Rights Watch said in a report and video released today. Since February 2022, over 3,790 educational facilities have been damaged or destroyed, according to Ukrainian government figures, severely interrupting access to education for millions of children.

The 71-page report, “Tanks on the Playground,” documents the damage and destruction of schools and kindergartens in four Ukrainian regions during the first months of the fighting. Most of the damage to educational facilities resulted from aerial attacks, artillery shelling, rocket strikes, and, in some cases, attacks using cluster munitions – causing significant damage to roofs, the collapse of walls, and major debris in classrooms. Russian forces frequently looted and pillaged schools they occupied, a war crime.

“Ukrainian children have paid a high price in this war because attacks on education are attacks on their future,” said Hugh Williamson, director of the Europe and Central Asia division at Human Rights Watch. “The international community should condemn the damage and destruction of schools in Ukraine and looting by Russian forces.”

Human Rights Watch visited 50 education facilities in the Kyivska, Kharkivska, Chernihivska, and Mykolaivska regions and interviewed almost 90 school officials, representatives of local authorities, and witnesses to military operations.

Education in Ukraine has been under attack since Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014. Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 led to further attacks on and military use of schools, which, along with the overall effects of war, have severely disrupted Ukrainian children’s education, already suffering from school closures due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Many students from schools that were damaged or destroyed had to continue their studies in other schools, studying in shifts or remotely, which has eroded the quality of education, Human Rights Watch said. Russian forces’ attacks on power infrastructure and consequent electricity and internet outages have frequently impeded remote learning.

Full Post @ Human Rights Watch https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/11/09/ukraine-wars-toll-schools-childrens-future

(Jerusalem) – Allies of Israel and backers of Palestinian armed groups should suspend the transfer of arms to the warring parties in Israel and Gaza given the real risk that they will be used to commit grave abuses, Human Rights Watch said today. Providing weapons that knowingly and significantly would contribute to unlawful attacks can make those providing them complicit in war crimes.

Israel and Palestinian armed groups have committed serious abuses amounting to war crimes during the current hostilities. Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups deliberately killed hundreds of civilians in Israel on October 7, 2023, and took more than 200 hostage. Israel then cut electricity, fuel, food and water to Gaza’s population and severely curtailed life-saving humanitarian aid, all of which are acts of collective punishment.

“Civilians are being punished and killed at a scale unprecedented in recent history in Israel and Palestine,” said Bruno Stagno, chief advocacy officer at Human Rights Watch. “The United States, Iran and other governments risk being complicit in grave abuses if they continue to provide military assistance to known violators.”

Israel’s key allies—the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Germany—should suspend military assistance and arms sales to Israel so long as its forces commit widespread, serious abuses amounting to war crimes against Palestinian civilians with impunity. Iran and other governments should cease providing arms to Palestinian armed groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, so long as they systematically commit attacks amounting to war crimes against Israeli civilians.

Since October 7, about 1,400 Israelis and others, and more than 9,700 Palestinians, many of them civilians, have been killed, according to local authorities.

During the current hostilities, Israeli forces have imposed collective punishment on civilians in Gaza by denying them water, electricity, and food, and have willfully impeded humanitarian aid from entering Gaza.

They have also repeatedly used explosive weapons with wide area effects in densely populated areas, reducing entire blocks and large parts of neighborhoods to rubble and raising grave concerns of indiscriminate attacks, and indiscriminately used white phosphorus, an incendiary material that burns human flesh and can cause lifelong suffering, in populated areas in Gaza and in Lebanon. Amnesty International has also verified photos showing M825-series white phosphorous 155mm artillery projectiles being used by Israeli forces near the Lebanese border and Gaza fences.

Israel’s military has also ordered over a million people in northern Gaza to evacuate to the south of Gaza because of military operations in the north, though they had no safe place to go or safe way to go anywhere in Gaza. Broad-based warnings, rather than specific warnings of imminent attacks, suggest that everywhere in northern Gaza is subject to military attack. This order risks mass forced displacement, a war crime. Israel has also sealed its border crossings to anyone who would seek to flee.

Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups have deliberately killed civilians, taken civilians hostage and continue to hold them, and launched thousands of rockets at Israeli communities, all of which are war crimes.

The leaders of Israel and Palestinian armed groups have made statements indicating that serious abuses by their forces will continue. Israeli officials have sought to hold Gaza’s entire population responsible for the October 7 attack; one minister said that “there is no reason” to provide humanitarian aid to the population until Israeli forces “eliminate” Hamas. A spokesman for the Hamas military wing threatened to broadcast “with sound and video” the “execution of one of our enemy’s civilian hostages.”

Future military transfers to Israel in the face of ongoing serious violations of the laws of war risk making the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Germany complicit in these abuses if they knowingly and significantly contribute to them, Human Rights Watch said. Providing weapons to Palestinian armed groups, given their continuing unlawful attacks, risks making Iran complicit in those violations.

Full Post @ Human Rights Watch https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/11/06/suspend-arms-israel-palestinian-armed-groups

14/10/2023

Liberal International is deeply saddened by the unfolding tragedy and human suffering resulting from the recent Hamas attack on Israel. We mourn the loss of innocent civilian lives on all sides of the conflict. The carnage caused by Hamas’ incursion into Israeli territory has led to a military response by Israel.

As events escalate we are deeply concerned about the threat to the lives and homes of civilians – ordinary men, women and children – in Gaza . We insist that all combatants act in accordance with the laws of war and international humanitarian law to minimise civilian casualties. We call upon Hamas to free all hostages with immediate effect.

We reiterate the position adopted by the global liberal family that two independent and democratic states can be the only viable outcome for civilian populations on both sides. We applaud the leadership of the United Nations Secretary General who is working to find an equitable solution that respects the aspirations, security and rights of both Israelis and Palestinians.

Source:https://liberal-international.org/news-articles/li-bureau-alarmed-at-threat-to-the-civilians/

07/10/2023

The bureau of Liberal International stands in solidarity with the people of Israel and condemns today’s attacks against civilians in the south of the country and recognises Israel’s right to defend itself.

News of indiscriminate rocket bombardments, gunmen from the militant group, Hamas, entering Israel from Gaza, and reports of the taking of hostages in their homes shock us and liberals worldwide. Our thoughts are with the victims of these attacks which do not serve the interest of the Palestinian people.

Source:https://liberal-international.org/news-articles/liberal-international-stands-in-solidarity-with-the-people-of-israel/

Jon Levine reports @ The New York Post:

Former President Trump offered a hearty congratulations to Kim Jong Un after North Korea’s admission to the World Health Organization’s Executive Board.

“Congratulations to Kim Jon Un,” Trump said in a post to his Truth Social account on Friday, while sharing an article about the news.

The move immediately drew waves of criticism from Republicans.

“Kim Jong Un starves his own people. It’s a total farce that North Korea has a leading role at the World Health Organization,” said presidential candidate and Trump’s former U.N ambassador Nikki Haley.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp also derided Trump. “Taking our country back from Joe Biden does not start with congratulating North Korea’s murderous dictator,” he tweeted.

Full Story by Jon Levine @ The New York Post https://nypost.com/2023/06/03/trump-congratulates-kim-jong-un-on-north-korea-entry-into-who-board/

WASHINGTON – More than $1.3 billion U.S. tax dollars were sent to Russia and China over the past five years (since 2017), according to a new analysis released today by Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and OpenTheBooks.com auditors. This amount likely doesn’t reflect the total amount because federal agencies do not follow the trail of tax dollars to their final destination.

Senator Ernst and Congressman Mike Gallagher (R-Wisc.) are leading the charge to create transparency and accountability for the taxpayer dollars that are being handed out in China and Russia. Today, they are introducing the Tracking Receipts to Adversarial Countries for Knowledge of Spending (TRACKS) Act that would require every penny from a government grant paid to any organization in China and Russia to be tracked and publicly disclosed.

Senator Ernst and Open the Books determined more than $490 million from U.S. grants and contracts were paid to organizations in China over the past five years and another $870 million were paid to entities in Russia.

“Holding firms responsible to publicly report where and how they use their grants and contract awards can deputize private citizens and make them part of the solution. Radical transparency is revolutionizing U.S. public policy and is the information machine for democracy. Everyone has a stake in a more transparent, effective government.”

Adam Andrzejewski, CEO & founder, OpenTheBooks.com

Some of these projects in Russia and China funded by taxpayer dollars already tracked down include:

• $58.7 million from Department of State, including $96,875 for gender equality through exhibition of New Yorker magazine cartoons
• $51.6 million from Department of Defense, including $6 million for tech support of the military “deployment and distribution command” software – delivering equipment and supplies anywhere our military is deployed, even though the DOD Inspector General warned the Pentagon about using Chinese IT companies on DOD projects
• $4.7 million to a Russian company for health insurance that was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2022
• $4.2 million from Health and Human Services, including $770,466 to a state-run lab in Russia to put cats on treadmills
• $2.4 million on Russian alcohol and addiction research
• $2 million funneled to China’s state-run Wuhan Institute of Virology to conduct dangerous experiments on bat coronaviruses and transgenic mice
• $1.6 million to Chinese companies from National School Lunch Program, which means taxpayer dollars from the CARES Act meant for American farmers went to Chinese ag exporters
• $1.45 million for pandemic virus tracking in Russia
• Subsidies for the Russian space program by funding the Russia Space Agency and vendors

Reposted from @ Open the Books https://www.openthebooks.com/openthebooks-and-us-sen-joni-ernst-tracked-over-13-billion-of-us-tax-dollars-sent-to-china-and-russia-promises-accountability-for-every-penny/